BRITISH ARMY OFFICER 'PRIMED MONAGHAN BOMB'

A former officer in the Irish defence forces has told a Dublin
parliamentary committee investigation into the Dublin and
Monaghan bombings of 1974 that he had information that a senior
British Army officer was the person who armed the bomb that
killed six people in Monaghan in May 1974.

Commandant PT Trears told the committee that the British Army
officer in question would also have had access to the forensic
evidence sent from the 26 Counties to the North for analysis
after the Dublin-Monaghan bombings that claimed 34 lives.

Commandant Trears served as an explosives expert with the
26-County defence forces, and defused over 15 bombs in Dublin
city centre in the 1970s.

Commandant Trears told the committee the British officer had
previously approached him and suggested in a casual manner that
he might provide information on the type of bombs that were being
detected in the South.

On Tuesday, the victims and victims' relatives of the 1974
Dublin and Monaghan bombings said they would take legal action
against the Dublin government if a full public inquiry into
the atrocities is not established.

Michael Mansfield QC, acting on behalf of Ed O'Neill, Bernie
Bergin and John Bergin, argued that the incorporation of the
European Convention on Human Rights meant the Government had
"little or no option other than to order a public inquiry".
Mr Mansfield said the right to life - as guaranteed in the
Convention's Article 2 - was violated by a failure to carry
out an effective and thorough investigation following the
unlawful killings.

He said the moral starting point for a legal obligation to
establish a public inquiry was the reasonable expectation of
the families. "And given the size of the atrocity we're
dealing with, a community beyond the victims was affected by
what happened."

He stressed that a public inquiry would be fruitful. He was
confident that the British government would hand over files to
a public inquiry that it had refused to the private Barron
inquiry.

"If the British Government refused to co-operate with a public
inquiry, it could be found to be in breach of the European
Convention".

Senator Jim Walsh (FF) asked Mr Mansfield why, if the legal
case for the establishment of a public inquiry was so strong
under the European Convention, his clients had not taken legal
action against the State compelling it to establish one.